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Outrage as Eminem calls for gun control in a surprise album

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FILE - In this July 20, 2015, file photo, rapper Eminem attends the premiere of "Southpaw" in New York. Rapper Eminem once again dropped a surprise album, releasing “Music to be Murdered By” on Friday, Jan. 17, 2020. (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP, File)

Rapper Eminem once again dropped a surprise album, releasing of “Music to Be Murdered By” on Friday.

The follow-up to 2018’s “Kamikaze” — also released without warning — was announced on Twitter just after midnight.

The Detroit rapper also released a new music video for one of the 20 tracks on the album, “Darkness,” which depicts a shooting at a concert. The lyrics and storyline of the video specifically allude to the 2017 mass shooting at a music festival in Las Vegas that left 58 people dead, making it the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history. It closes with audio and video footage of news broadcasts from other recent mass shooting around the U.S. and an appeal to register to vote.

“When will this end? When enough people care,” reads the text at the end of the video. “Register to vote at vote.gov. Make your voice heard and help change gun laws in America.”

A link to the music video on Eminem’s website encourages viewers to contact or visit several gun violence prevention organizations, including Everytown for Gun Safety and Sandy Hook Promise.

The cover art features blood spatter and a bearded Eminem holding both a hatchet and a gun to his head, the latter in apparent homage to Alfred Hitchcock’s 1958 album of the same name, Pitchfork noted. “Music to Be Murdered By” is Eminem’s 11th studio album, according to his website.

Among many collaborators, the album features Ed Sheeran, Skylar Grey, Anderson .Paak and Juice WRLD, the 21-year-old rapper who died in December.

Just In: Three storey building collapses in Lagos

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By Bukola Olasanmi

An uncompleted three-storey building, on Friday, collapsed around the Ago Palace way in Lagos State.

The Director-General, Lagos State Emergency Management Agency, Dr Oluwafemi Oke-Osanyintolu, who confirmed the incident said a yet-to-be identify man had been trapped under the rubble, adding that a rescue operation was ongoing.

Buhari departs Abuja on Friday for UK investment summit

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By Bukola Olasanmi 

President Muhammadu Buhari will depart Abuja Friday for London to participate in the inaugural UK-Africa Investment Summit holding on Monday, January 20, 2020.

Hosted by the British Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, the event, according to the organisers, is expected to bring together African leaders, international business chief executives and heads of international organisations “to create new partnerships that will deliver more investments and jobs” to the benefit of people and businesses in African countries and the United Kingdom.

Apart from highlighting new perspectives on UK-Africa Partnership for Prosperity, issues of Sustainable Finance and Infrastructure; Trade and Investment; Future African Growth Sectors and Clean Energy and Climate, are expected to dominate presentations and discussions during the Summit.

With the expected take-off of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) in mid-2020, the London investment summit will provide Nigeria with the opportunity to project itself as a leading investment destination for new industries.

In addition, the summit will deepen Nigeria-United Kingdom investment ties post-Brexit given that Africa currently represents just two per cent of British trade activity, with Nigeria accounting for only 10 per cent of that total.

The Nigerian delegation to the investment meeting will further showcase what the Federal Government has done through policies and legislations to improve the investment and business climate in the country.

While in the United Kingdom, President Buhari will hold a meeting with the Head of the Commonwealth, Prince Charles in Glasgow, Scotland.

The President and his delegation will also have bilateral meetings with Prime Minister Johnson as well as heads of multilateral organisations.
President Buhari will be accompanied to the Summit by Governors Yahaya Bello, Muhammad Inuwa Yahaya and Okezie Ikpeazu of Kogi, Gombe and Abia States respectively.

Also on the presidential entourage are the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Geoffrey Onyeama; Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Otunba Niyi Adebayo; the Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed; the National Security Adviser (NSA), Maj-Gen. Babagana Monguno (retd); and the Director General, National Intelligence Agency (NIA), Ambassador Ahmed Rufai Abubakar .
President Buhari is expected back in Abuja next Thursday.

 

Counter Terrorism: Nigeria, Egypt strengthen military ties

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Egypt's Defence Attache to Nigeria, Major General Hashem Ibrahim Hussein receiving a commemorative plaque from Nigeria's Chief of Army Staff Lt Gen TY Buratai

Nations around Africa’s Sahel region have been called upon to synergize and build military cooperation in other to defeat the emerging threats of terrorism and extremism in the region.

This was the call when the Egypt’s Ambassador to Nigeria Assem Hanafi Elseify paid a courtesy call on the Chief of Army Staff, Lieutenant General Tukur Buratai at the Army Headquarters in Abuja.

Ambassador Elseify said the need for a robust military cooperation and assistance between Nigeria and Egypt has become more critical than ever before.

“We need to strengthen relations between our countries’ military in other to render our own assistance in the spirit of partnership… we need to agree on diverse areas of cooperation in the fight against terrorism and extremism” he said.

In his remarks, the Chief of Army staff, Lieutenant General Tukur Buratai noted  that Nigeria and Egypt have a long standing diplomatic and military relations while enjoying reciprocal training and as well as educational partnership.

Buratai acknowledged that the two African powers have a lot to learn mutually as nations combatting extremist ideologies and terrorism.

Egypt alongside Nigeria are both members of the Community of Sahel-Saharan States (CEN-SAD).

Zarif: Europeans sold out remnants of Iran deal to appease Trump

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Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif says the European signatories to a 2015 nuclear deal — France, Britain and Germany — chose to bow to American bullying and sell out the “remnants” of the multilateral agreement only to appease the US and avoid its sanctions.

Zarif made the remarks in a tweet on Thursday after The Washington Post reported that the administration of US President Donald Trump had threatened to impose a 25 percent tariff on European automobile imports if the trio — known as EU3 or E3 — refused to formally accuse Iran of violating the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

The report was published shortly after the European trio said in a joint statement on Tuesday that they had triggered the JCPOA’s dispute mechanism, which amounts to a formal accusation that Tehran had broken the terms of the deal.

The European measure could lead to the restoration of anti-Iran UN sanctions, which had been lifted by the JCPOA.

The top Iranian diplomat attached to his tweet a screen shot of the Washington Post report’s title, saying the report confirmed the E3’s “appeasement” to Trump.

“E3 sold out remnants of #JCPOA to avoid new Trump tariffs. It won’t work my friends. You only whet his appetite, Remember your high school bully?” Zarif said. “If you want to sell your integrity, go ahead. But DO NOT assume high moral/legal ground. YOU DON’T HAVE IT.”

Zarif had likewise criticized the European parties to the JCPOA for surrendering to the US bullying on Wednesday, saying, “It’s sad that biggest economy has allowed itself to be bullied into violating own obligations. JCPOA’s future depends on E3, not Iran.”

Also addressing Raisina Dialogue 2020 in the Indian capital, New Delhi, Zarif emphasized that it was Iran that first triggered the JCPOA’s dispute mechanism on May 10, 2018, two days after the US withdrawal from the accord.

The JCPOA was signed between Iran and six world states — namely the US, Germany, France, Britain, Russia and China — in 2015. It was also ratified in the form of a UN Security Council resolution.

However, Washington’s exit and subsequent re-imposition of sanctions against Tehran left the future of the historic deal in limbo.

Tehran remained fully compliant with the JCPOA for an entire year, waiting for the co-signatories to fulfill their end of the bargain by offsetting the impacts of Washington’s bans on the Iranian economy.

As the European parties failed to do so, Tehran moved in May 2019 to suspend its JCPOA commitments in 60-day stages under Articles 26 and 36 of the deal covering Tehran’s legal rights.

Iran took its fifth and final commitment reduction step earlier this month.

Amotekun: Southwest may lose 2023 presidency – Miyetti Allah 

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The Fulani socio-cultural group Miyetti Allah Kautal Hore has said that the Amotekun security initiative may cost the South West the 2023 presidency.

This was disclosed by the national secretary, Alhassan Saleh.

The Nation reports that Saleh said that Southwest governors must withdraw support for the security outfit.

He said this is will enable the region stand a chance of taking a shot at the presidency come 2023. Going further, he expressed disappointment in the Southwest intelligentsia for supporting the outfit.

“This Amotekun scheme is political and is not the solution to the problem of insecurity. What the South-West governors should have done is to continue to push for state police.

“Where did they expect to get the funding from at a time some of them are struggling to pay salaries? “It is best they give up on this idea because it may affect the chances of the South-West to produce the president in 2023.

Meanwhile, the federal government is reportedly considering a stand against the project.

One of the considerations being made is how to ensure that the outfit commences operation and run smooth operations without a clash of interest with other security agencies in the country.

Part of the resolutions, according to one of the sources, has to do with establishing a legal framework upon which the Amotekun was formed as well as its importance at what the southwest believe is a critical period.

The legal backing, one of the sources said, is for Amotekun to be transformed into a community policing policy of the federal government which the Nigeria Police Force (NPF) is making efforts to implement.

Thousands rally in The Gambia for ex-leader Yahya Jammeh’s return

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Protest follows self-exiled leader’s insistence in recent audio recording that The Gambia guarantee his right to return.

Thousands of supporters of The Gambia’s former leader Yahya Jammeh have demonstrated on the outskirts of the capital Banjul, demanding his return from self-exile.

The protest on Thursday came days after Jammeh was heard in an audio recording insisting that the West African state guarantee his right to return.

Jammeh ruled The Gambia with an iron fist for 22 years but fled in January 2017 after losing a presidential election to a relatively unknown Adama Barrow.

Calls for his return from Equatorial Guinea have grown recently as tensions heighten over Barrow’s decision to stay in office for five years – reversing a previous pledge to step down after three.

On Thursday, thousands of supporters of Jammeh’s Alliance for Patriotic Reorientation and Construction (APRC) party gathered in Sukuta, a town 20 kilometres (12 miles) from Banjul.

“We need him 100 percent. We are ready to die for him,” Ismaila Colleyk, a 26-year-old protester, told AFP news agency, referring to Jammeh.

“Before Jammeh left here for exile, there was an agreement for him to come back into the country after three years.”

Thousands of Gambians protested last month, demanding Barrow step down, and similar protests are planned for January 19 or 20.

Barrow supporters have also held counterdemonstrations.

Right to return

The former president’s supporters argue that he has a right to return under a joint statement from the African Union, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and the United Nations, published at the time of his exile.

The organisations committed to working with the government to ensure Jammeh’s security and rights, in particular, his right to return.

Maimuna Jaju, a 23-year-old businesswoman, told AFP news agency that people were “experiencing hardship” under Barrow.

“This is why we want former president Jammeh to come back and take over the mantle of leadership,” she added.

In the audio recording issued by Jammeh’s political party last week, the former leader said he supported Thursday’s protest.

“The fact of the matter is to meet the authorities and make it very clear to them that the agreement must be implemented,” Jammeh said in the recording.

Barrow’s cabinet has said Jammeh can return as a citizen, but cannot run for president again.

Jammeh is accused of numerous human rights abuses.

Since January 2019, about 190 witnesses have appeared before a Truth, Reconciliation and Reparations Commission set up to investigate abuses under his rule.

 

Sudan reopens airspace after armed mutiny by pro al-Bashir group

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Sudan said it reopened its airspace Wednesday after an armed revolt from within its security forces shut down the capital’s airport for hours and left at least two people dead.

In a press conference, Gen. Abdel-Fattah Burhan, head of the country’s ruling transitional council, announced that “life has returned to normal,” following a tense stand-off between the armed forces and rogue intelligence officers. The officers had fired shots in the air to demand better severance benefits.

Sudan’s petroleum minister declared the resumption of oil production at two fields that had been seized by rebellious officers.

The airport authority in neighboring Egypt said it was resuming all flights to Sudan, following a two-day suspension over security concerns.

The burst of unrest had paralyzed street life in several parts of the capital, Khartoum, along with another western city. Videos circulated on social media showing vast deployment of security forces and heavy exchanges of gunfire.

The armed forces will “not allow any coup to occur,” said Burhan, adding that it was a “shame that weapons were raised in the faces of the people.”

The army quickly quelled the short-lived mutiny with “minimal losses,” said General Mohamed Othman al-Hussein, its chief of staff on Wednesday. The clashes killed two people and injured four others, including two officers, he added.

The doctors’ union reported that a father and his two children were killed when an errant artillery shell struck their home in a Khartoum suburb. The father was killed instantly, it said, and his 19-year-old daughter and 25-year-old son died on the way to the hospital. The different death tolls could not immediately be reconciled.

After trying to persuade the renegade officers to turn over their arms, the military stormed and retook the headquarters of an intelligence agency “using the least amount of force possible,” al-Hussein said.

The mutiny was the latest twist in Sudan’s fragile democratic transition after three decades of authoritarian rule under former President Omar al-Bashir. A sweeping protest movement ousted al-Bashir in April and led to the creation of a joint military-civilian government last summer.

During the transitional period, Sudan is devising ways to reorganize its armed forces. The program, al-Hussein said, requires dismantling an intelligence agency branch and merging it with a paramilitary unit known as the Rapid Support Forces, notorious for their brutal suppression of insurgencies in Sudan’s restive provinces.

Unrest ensued as angry intelligence officers, who were dismissed without receiving what they considered fair compensation, took to the streets.

Sudanese Prime Minister Abdallah Hamdok described the mutiny as “discord” aimed at “cutting off the nation’s transition to building a solid democracy.”

The disturbance, revealing simmering tensions within Sudan’s security apparatus, poses a tough test for the newly formed government’s democratic and economic goals.

“Sudan needs to figure out how to dismantle the deep state’s security forces and deal with their members,” said Cairo-based political analyst Saeed Sadek. “They are powerful, capable of creating civil war and subverting the transition.”

Armed Forces Remembrance Day: Troops write PMB emotional letter to assure of victory over Boko Haram

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Loud Jubilation by troops of Forward Operating Base Daura during COAS visit to the Base

.….appreciates COAS, Buratai’s role in leading counter-insurgency war

In commemoration of the 2020 Armed Forces Remembrance Day, some troops in the frontlines has penned an emotional letter to President Muhammadu Buhari, assuring him of victory over the already decimated Boko Haram terrorists.

In the mail signed by Adamu Abubakar and Moses Adebanjo (Staff Sergeant and Army Warrant Officer respectively), the soldiers said they are motivated by the president’s “undisguised passion, zeal and honest commitment to liberate Nigeria from the manacles of Boko Haram insurgency and its latter-day variant of Islamic State West African Province (ISWAP)”.

The troops in the frontlines were full of praises for the Chief of Army Staff (COAS), describing him as the “conqueror of terrorists” for leading the counter-insurgency crusade by himself.

The constant visits of Gen. Buratai to troops especially at special festivities, according to the soldiers, “massages their ego and strengthens our resolve to coast home with victory against terrorists”.

The group added that the COAS has relentlessly ensured that terrorists in whatever guise have been correspondingly dissolved by forces of the Nigerian state.

Unlike in time past, the troops revealed that the Nigerian Army has been transformed into a responsible and responsive military force, with sparkling shadows of global best practices and adequately armed with modern warfare instruments.

The troops, however, prayed for sustained efforts and upward review of their welfare package in order to fight the insurgents more ferociously.

The gallant soldiers, therefore, assured the president and Nigerians that the end is in sight for the Islamic sect as more than ever, they committed to ending the war.

Read full letter below:

We thank God Almighty for His infinite mercies that have transited us into Year 2020 gracefully. We specially felicitate and wish our President and Commander-In-Chief of the Armed Forces of Nigeria, President Muhammadu Buhari, GCFR an exciting and prosperous New Year.

Similarly, we identify with Mr. President on the unique occasion of the celebration of the Year 2020-Armed Forces Remembrance Day, which solemnity is embedded in the commemoration of our fallen heroes and heroines.

May the federation of Nigeria find peace and security for the ultimate price these gallant military personnel paid for our liberation; may their families find endless favours from Almighty God and may their souls be granted pardon and eternal rest.

Your Excellency, we are soldier of the Nigerian Army who have served our country for over 15 years and are currently at the frontlines in Nigeria’s Northeast. We were in the Army, when Boko Haram insurgency sprouted in 2009. And we have been actively involved in quenching the conflagrations of terrorists on Nigeria at different times and locations under various leaderships of the country till this moment.

But we are voicing out our feelings for the first time in this open letter. We dare say, we are motivated by your undisguised passion, zeal and honest commitment to liberate Nigeria from the manacles of Boko Haram insurgency and its latter-day variant of Islamic State West African Province (ISWAP).

We and millions of other Nigerians have observed over the years that you have provided purposeful and rewarding democratic leadership, not only to Nigerians; but has dispensed same to the Nigerian military, especially the Nigerian Army, which you anointed and mandated to terminate the reign of Boko Haram terrorism in Nigeria. We accepted the assignment with pride.

Under your leadership as the Commander-In-Chief of the Nigerian Armed Forces, insurgency has not sustained or developed its famed intractable horns or migrated from bad to worse. Your leadership has proved to Nigerians and the world that with the right political will and commitment, terrorism will be repressed and finally defeated in Nigeria.

Through our interactions with our colleagues on the frontlines, we are impressed by their unanimously confessed, and evidently positive testimonies of veneration, motivation and inspiration of our troops by Mr. President through the COAS and leader of the counter-insurgency operations, Lt. Gen. Tukur Yusufu Buratai, whom we fete as the conqueror of terrorists.

We shall be repeating the obvious, which probably must have come to your notice earlier through public testimonies. But permit us to emphasize that Mr. President’s unprecedented commitment to the welfare of Military personnel, especially Nigerian troops in the trenches and the replication of same by the COAS; the fraternal and indiscriminate inclination of Gen. Buratai in constant communion with troops have been the most potent weapons and tonic of troops in the voracious conquest of Boko Haram insurgents and the ISWAP elements.

And bolstered by you, the Army Chief has relentlessly ensured that terrorists in whatever guise who tormented Nigerians and dragged us into the Hobbesian levels of agonies, mindless violence, gruesome deaths, abductions, displacements of whole populations and destructions in connivance with non-state actors have been correspondingly dissolved by forces of the Nigerian state. Full sanity is being restored in our nation.

Furthermore, Your Excellency, Sir, your worthy vision of transforming the Nigerian Army into a responsible and responsive military force, with sparkling shadows of global best practices have seen to reforms and innovations which have elevated the performance status and rating of the Army as its endearing legacies.

The continuous acquisition of modern warfare instruments for the Army and the development of Army’s human resources base in science and technology are certitudes of reactivation of the collapsed foundation for a perfect Army in the nearest future, which only clairvoyants can sight or discern.

Our plea is that these efforts should be sustained and troops can be better equipped, in order to fight the insurgents more ferociously. We plead that whatever the country can do to help the Army with the necessary technologies in the meantime and for future use, should be done to speedily railroad the end of counter-insurgency operations in Nigeria.

Consequently Sir, we seize this unique privilege of interaction with you on the occasion of the Year 2020 Armed Forces Day to implore you to combine your military experiences and the prevailing circumstances to critically examine and consider the proposal/request by the Nigerian Army for an independent Army Aviation Wing. It is festooned on the premise that it would fasten the final termination of Boko Haram/ISWAP in Nigeria.

We passionately plead and may it be your considered opinion that the FGN under your direction should not hesitate to withhold any arsenal necessary to end terrorism in Nigeria. We need Army’s operation of its air power, to eliminate lacunas or delays in counter-insurgency operations when the need arises.

Sir, it may please you to note that this kind of technology is also used by the Armies of Asian tiger countries, in battling similar national security threats like terrorism. Nigerian Army requires its independent drones and weapons in the trenches that can be deployed at night at short notice, effortlessly and effectively.

With your kind support and foresight, the COAS, Gen. Buratai has laid a solid foundation for the Army’s airwing. The establishment of the Nigerian Army Aviation School and the Nigerian Army University, Biu (NAUB) are the COAS’s foresighted answers to the question of manpower that may arise for an Army air unit.

Therefore, we are always excited anytime your message of encouragement reaches us on the battlefield through the COAS. It is for us, messages of strength and inspiration which have always spurred troops to go the extra-mile in this unique assignment.

We are glad to inform you that your kind disposition and affection for us have been emulated and applied by the COAS.

The constant visits of Gen. Buratai to troops especially at special festivities such as Sallah and yuletide seasons massages our ego and strengthens our resolve to coast home with victory against terrorists.

Each time, we sight the COAS in midst of troops, we feel quite confident and convinced that troops are strongly and effervescently remembered by the Commander-In-Chief of Nigeria. And this simple, but worthy gesture unconsciously drags us into a stimulation to want to do more for Nigeria.

Your Excellency Sir, may we at the behest of troops thank you for the assurance that troops welfare will be further reviewed upwards again in Year 2020 as a source of morale boosting. We are not oblivious of the other special packages you have unveiled for troops and their families which are of immense benefits to them back home and relieved much burdens for us in the frontlines.

Our children now attend best Army schools in virtually all barracks, which are refurbished or renovated and equipped to taste with leaning materials by your administration. Our posterity has accessed this quality education at virtually no cost on our incomes. The multiple economic empowerment initiatives for spouses of Army personnel is another breathtaking burden you have lifted off our shoulders. We thank you tremendously.
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May we assure you and Nigerians that troops of the Nigerian Army are in a hurry to return home from the warfront, but have vowed that until the terrorism war is totally won. We are confident to present the golden medal of defeat of Boko Haram insurgents and ISWAP elements to you in the nearest future.

My Commander-In-Chief, I have known you to be a listening leader for decades, right from your days as the Military Administrator of the defunct North Eastern State.

And by your open mindedness, there is no doubt that you will listen to everyone in the frontlines who has a message or suggestion to make to improve the Army. It is because you have remained an indisputable key component in the struggle for the liberation of Nigeria from terrorism, insurgencies and insurrections, as we are merely your foot soldiers.

We assure you by the prophetic voice of our colleagues that like others before us, we have chosen the patriotic duty to serve our country even at the cost of our lives. And so, in spite of our collective follies, artificial setbacks and difficulties, we are not undeterred and resolute to present to you the trophy of conquest of enemies of Nigeria.

Finally, Sir, we wish you a happy Armed Forces Day celebration; ditto for the esteemed members of the Nigerian Armed Forces; their families and the good people of Nigeria.

Gunmen Attack on Emir of Potiskum’s Convoy Kills Six

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No fewer than six people have lost their lives and five others injured following an attack on the convoy of the Emir of Potiskum in Yobe State, Alhaji Umaru Bubaram by gunmen along the Kaduna-Zaria expressway in Kaduna State.

The spokesperson of the Police Command in the state, DSP Yakubu Sabo, confirmed the incident on Wednesday.

According to him, the gunmen in large numbers intercepted the convoy of the emir and other vehicles around Maraban Jos on the Kaduna-Zaria expressway at about 11:00 pm on Tuesday.

They immediately opened fire on the entourage, and in the process, shot and killed four aides of the emir and two other passengers of a commercial luxurious bus while five others were injured.

Sabo further disclosed that the gunmen later abducted an unidentified number of passengers to an unknown destination before the arrival of security operatives.

He, however, noted that a manhunt of the gunmen has already commenced with a view to rescuing the kidnapped victims alive and also arresting the bandits.

According to him, the injured victims including the emir were later rushed to the hospital for medical attention.

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